The Crying Game

 7. The Crying Game

Before 'The Sixth Sense' came out there was another film making the rounds that had an ending people would just not give away. You had to see it for yourself. And so, “The Crying Game” was a film with a secret, and what a secret it was. Even though I assume that most movie lovers would have seen it, I am still not going to reveal the secret. What I will talk about, is the film itself with a short synopsis, and an interesting connection I had with one of the actors of the film a few years after I had seen it.

Our story begins in England, where a soldier on a break at a carnival is kidnapped by hooded people. He is held captive by them and we find out they are work for the IRA. The soldiers name is Jody and one of his captors, and the main character of the film, Fergus, forms a relationship with him. Jody talks about the love of his life, Dil, a beautiful, androgynous woman who lives in London. Jody asks Fergus that if anything happens to him, he'd like Fergus to find Dil and deliver the news. An order comes from above that Jody must be killed, and Fergus volunteers to do it. As they walk out into the woods, Jody escapes, but is hit by a truck and killed. That truck was driven by English soldiers who find the IRA guys in their little hide out and kill them all. Fergus survives and flees to London. 

Once he arrives, he changes his name and appearance and keeps a low profile. He finds Dil and is captivated by her beauty. Instead of telling her that Jody is dead, Fergus, who now calls himself Jimmy, decides he will try and win Dil's heart and the romance begins. 

The two form a relationship, and just as things are heating up between them, a major twist comes around, which like I said I will not reveal here. Fergus's past also catches up with him, and things get dangerous.

The Crying Game was a very well received film, and was nominated for several awards. It is beautifully made and has a special, "dream like" quality about it that you don't see in many films today. 

One of the actors in the film, Jaye Davidson, went on to play Ra in 'Stargate' after this film and then sort of disappeared from movies all together. It was around 2001, a few years after I first saw the movie and had just watched it again, that I was wondering whatever happened to Jaye Davidson. So I hopped on the net and found his website. 

There was an e-mail address for him which I thought I would give a go of. I sent him a message saying I really liked his work in both The Crying Game and Stargate, and a few days later I got a reply. I thought maybe it could have been someone else answering on his behalf, but as I continued writing e-mails asking Jaye about his life and what he was doing these days, I kept getting replies and my instincts told me that it was the real him. Just the things he said, and the ways he said them told me so. For about 6 months we were e-mail buddies and talked about all sorts of things. I asked him what his experience was like working on Stargate, what kind of work he was doing now, and about a script I was working on, which he asked me to send to him to read. 

Then one day, I stopped getting e-mails from Jaye all together. There was no explanation or reason why, and his website also got taken away. However, it was an interesting time in which I was friends with an ex-movie star for a little while, something that never comes around for most people...

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